Bengaluru: Hindutva workers allegedly abducted and assaulted a 17-year-old Muslim boy in Karnataka’s Dakshin Kannada district on March 11 at a local fair.
The incident came to light recently after the victim’s father filed a complaint on Wednesday, March 18, after discovering the boy’s suicide letter.
The assault took place in Ujire under the Belthangady police station limits. The minor had gone to the Jatra Mahotsav fair with his friends, where he was standing beside a ferris wheel, when a group of Hindutva miscreants approached him.
Bajrang Dal workers, Gaurav Shetty and Ramesh, reportedly accused the minor of attending the fair with Hindu girls.
They allegedly assaulted and abused the boy at the venue and later took him to another location away from the fair on a motorcycle, where they continued the assault. The accused forced him to record a video statement stating he made a mistake by attending the fair. The boy was later released and reached home in a state of fear.
He was repeatedly hounded by the men who continued to call the minor after the incident. When he stopped responding, one of the accused reportedly sent messages threatening to come to his house.
The minor was under severe distress by then and decided to attempt suicide, and wrote a note. He was later questioned by his family members who discovered the note, following which a case was reported, according to local media.
The Balthangady police stated that no suicide has been reported as of now.
The case was registered under Sections 137(2) (kidnapping), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 353(2) (public mischief), and 190 (unlawful assembly) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Further investigation is underway, the police said.
